Network switch devices have been used to forward packets from one node to another node. For example, network switch devices have been used in traffic production network to communicate packets transmitted from a first node to a second node, wherein the second node is an intended recipient of the packets generated by the first node.
An embodiment described herein relates to another type of network switch device that operates in an out-of-band configuration. Such network switch device is configured to tap packets from a traffic production network, and therefore it is not a part of the traffic production network. Such network switch device may include one or more instrument ports for transmitting packets to one or more instruments for monitoring network traffic. An embodiment described herein provides a network switch device for processing packets for transmission to one or more network monitoring instruments based on an identified session.